


One Thousand and One

by Sami_Fire



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21699292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sami_Fire/pseuds/Sami_Fire
Summary: Galo comes up with the idea to get Lio out of the apartment by taking him on a quest to meet one thousand and one good people in the world. Lio reluctantly agrees, and the two rack up a decent count before the end of the day.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	One Thousand and One

Galo was the sort of man to wake up with a mission in his head and absolutely not let go of it until he deemed the mission complete. It kept him focused, as far as he was concerned, and he was not one to complain about a fire in his heart giving him purpose for the day.

The first thing he did was shove the day’s mission in Lio’s face. "Good morning! I'm dragging your ass outside today," Galo said, leaning over the dining room table in front of Lio, who was trying to eat breakfast. 

“Come again?” Lio looked down at his eggs and then up at Galo, as though there was a link between the two.

"You've been hiding in the apartment for too long. You can’t just work with the Burning Rescue and then come home and go to sleep, and you can’t just hermit around here every weekend, either,” Galo said, keeping his focus entirely on Lio and attempting to formulate comebacks where he could.

“Says who? I find your apartment perfectly comfortable,” Lio muttered, picking at a piece of bacon on his plate.

“Says me.” That seemed like a solid enough comeback. Galo reached forward as though he was going to steal Lio’s bacon, but thought better of it for once and pulled back. “You ought to go out and see the city you fought for and are helping to rebuild.” That was the more important point.

Lio glared at Galo’s hand and grouchily shoved the remaining strip of bacon into his mouth. “I understand what you’re getting at, but I have my reasons for not wanting to go out there.”

“You’re not going out there alone. I’ll be with you every step of the way. If it makes you feel better, I won’t let you go out alone until you’re sure everything’s okay. Deal?” Galo’s gaze shifted to the window behind Lio for a moment, as though he could see Promepolis’s people just outside. Being a few stories up rendered that impossible, naturally, but it was the thought that counted.

“Fine. Deal.” Lio paused to push his empty plate away, then added, “I was wondering why you wore a shirt today.”

“Hey, no shirt, no shoes, no service applies even to the great Galo Thymos,” Galo quipped. “Go get ready.” Galo couldn’t help but notice how slowly Lio got up and plodded to the bedroom, as though he was procrastinating on every single step. The lack of haste concerned him, but it also triggered his natural impatience, and he couldn’t help but tap his feet and jitter his legs while he waited for Lio to come back.

Soon enough, Lio stood before the door to the apartment, hesitating, with every inch of his posture indicating reluctance to leave. He shook his head and hung it low. “I can’t go out there right now, even with you,” he said softly. “There are people the Burnish hurt that would love a chance to kill me on sight.”

Galo sighed and shook his head. “Lio, listen to me when I say this.” He cupped Lio’s chin and turned his head to face him, and he was surprised to meet little resistance to that gesture. “If you’ve seen a thousand horrible things in this world, then I want to show you that one thousand and one people with good hearts exist in this world. Do you get what I’m saying?” Galo’s gaze remained as steady as his conviction.

“One thousand and one,” Lio murmured, looking back into Galo’s eyes, as though he could find the answers to his doubts there. Eventually, he seemed to arrive at a reassuring conclusion. “Fine. Show me.”

“That’s the spirit!” Galo clapped Lio on the back and nudged him forward. “Let’s go meet those thousand and one people!” Since further nudging wasn’t moving Lio fast enough, Galo decided to just drag the smaller man out the door.

Galo had a few destinations picked out to rack up those one thousand and one good people, and he made a beeline to where he thought was a good place to start. One he arrived, he shoved Lio through the door of the place and posed proudly in front of the people inside. “We’ll start here!”

Lio scrunched up his face in confusion. “Galo, this is the Burning Rescue headquarters. I’m here every other day.”

“Yeah! So you know there are good people here, right?” Galo grinned as Aina and Lucia came over. “Here’s one and two!”

“One and two of what?” Lucia asked, shooting Galo a suspicious look.

“Two people with good hearts,” Galo declared without missing a beat.

“Um, thanks?” Aina smiled, but the confusion was in her eyes. “What’s this about?”

“He’s trying to prove to me that there are one thousand and one good people in the world,” Lio said, and it sounded so cheesy that he couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Oh, I see,” Aina said with a nod. “That’s a very Galo thing to do.”

“You bet!” Galo began to peer around Aina to look for the others. “Okay, I see Varys and Remi and Ignis talking about something back there. That’s five.”

“Uh, you’re forgetting someone,” Lucia said, pointing to a certain firefighter hat-festooned rodent chilling on a table behind her.

“Does Vinny even count?” Lio asked, scratching his head.

“If you have to ask, the answer is yes,” Galo said as Lucia threw in an “Of course he does!” The two shared a grin over their agreement before Galo put his attention back to Lio. “So, that’s six, and these are just people you bump into on most days. Let’s go look for more!”

“Well, okay, but-” Lio was cut off by Ignis’s voice booming from across the room.

“Galo, what did I say about lingering here on your days off?” The head honcho’s voice seemed to resound in a way no one else’s could. “That goes for you too, Lio.”

“Okay, time to scram!” Galo promptly grabbed Lio’s arm and dragged him out the door, leaving the smaller man to complain that his arm was going to get dislocated every step of the way.

When Lio was finally allowed to stand still, he was in front of a certain pizzeria. “This place?”

“Yep! Everyone who eats here has to have a good heart to truly enjoy the love and soul put into this pizza.” Galo waved to the people inside the restaurant, and a few of them waved back, including a little girl sitting on her father’s lap.

“I’m not sure I follow, but I’ll take your word for it,” Lio muttered. “Should I start counting?”

“Yeah, we’ve got to make sure we both keep count, or it’ll mess everything up,” Galo said, already counting on his fingers. After a minute, he finished. “I’ve got… twelve, I think? Yeah, twelve.”

“Same,” Lio said.

“And six plus twelve is?” Galo asked.

“You’re just asking because you can’t do math,” Lio retorted through a chuckle. “Eighteen. We’re at eighteen people now.”

“Eighteen good people!” Galo cheered, emphasizing the word Lio left out. “Okay, now let’s see who we can find in the street.”

“Are you seriously just going to bother random people?!” Lio’s eyes widened, and the fear of reproach was written all over his face.

“Of course! What better way to prove that there’s one thousand and one good people in the world than by talking to as many of them as possible?” Galo grabbed Lio’s hand in preparation for another yank across town, and he noticed something off. “Hey, don’t be nervous. Squeeze my hand if it helps, but you’ve got nothing to be afraid of.” Lio simply nodded and took a deep breath as Galo led him along.

The rest of the day was taken up by Galo stopping as many people as he could and throwing them all questions about their feelings about the city and the state of affairs. Some expressed optimism, others were more guarded, but overall, the people were responsive and willing to let the unusual instance brighten their day.

Even so, Lio’s head was starting to spin. “Galo, I think I want to go home.”

“Why?” Galo asked. “Don’t tell me you’re getting tired already! We’ve just started.”

“I am,” Lio huffed. “Also, I’ve lost count of how many people we have. I think, when I last checked, we were at 42.”

“No way! How long have you been zoned out? My count is at 62!” Galo gave Lio’s head a teasing little shove. “Okay, maybe you do need a rest. We’ll work on your stamina some other day.”

“Thanks for having mercy on me,” Lio muttered, rolling his eyes. “Let’s go now, or I’ll end up falling asleep on the way home.”

“Don’t tell me you used to sleep standing up, because that’s just worrying,” Galo said, shaking his head. Lio just sighed and began to wander in the direction of Galo’s apartment. “Hey, wait up!”

Eventually, the two made it home, and they were greeted by an unexpected sight that Lio immediately latched onto. “Gueira? Meis? What are you doing here?”

“Hey, look, it’s 63 and 64!” Galo said, gesturing to Gueira and Meis sitting on the couch. “Score! We got two more people even after you got tired!”

“You forgot to lock your door, so we’re keeping watch,” Meis said. “That’s a perk of living in the same apartment building as you. We can drop in whenever.”

“Yup, we held down the fort for our boss!” Gueira laughed and gave Meis a hearty slap on the back that he barely reacted to. “By the way, 63 and 64 of what? You can’t just say that and leave us hanging.”

“Galo, you explain it. I’m tired of saying the same thing over and over again,” Lio whined.

“Wow, you must be tired if you’re not freaking out about the fact that you forgot to lock the door first,” Galo said, almost looking concerned.

“You’re the one who keeps track of the key, you idiot,” Lio hissed.

“Okay, okay! Cranky baby needs his nappy nap,” Galo muttered, only to get a solid elbowing in the ribs. “Ow! That hurts! He’s being mean to me, you guys! Aren’t you going to do anything to stop him?”

“Nope.” The response was immediate and simultaneous from both Gueira and Meis.

“Man, you guys are mean, too.” Galo gave Lio a gentle shove and got grunted at in response. “But you still have good hearts. I’m trying to prove to Lio here that there are one thousand and one people with good hearts in the world, even if he’s seen a thousand awful things. Does that help?”

The two former Burnish generals exchanged a look and a nod. “I can get behind that,” Meis concluded. “I think we could all stand to see something like that for ourselves.”

“Yeah! We’ll help, for sure. We’ll have to go on an outing, just the three of us,” Gueira added. “We probably ought to start our own count. We’re 64 people behind you two, right? I’ll have to remember that.”

Lio gave a thin smile. “Thank you for your support, you two. I look forward to that outing. Now…” He paused for a heavy sigh. “Can you two go home so I can get some rest?”

“Roger that,” Meis said, getting up off the couch and gesturing for Gueira to follow. “C’mon, Boss needs as much rest as that guy will let him have.”

As Meis and Gueira walked past him, Galo was quick to object. “Hey, I’m not ‘that guy!’ I’m Galo Thymos, and don’t you forget it!”

“Yeah, yeah, we know who you are,” Gueira said as he made his exit. “See you around!”

When the door shut behind the duo, Galo plopped down on the couch and patted the spot next to him. “C’mon, you can rest right here. I’ll even rub your head till you fall asleep. How about it?”

“You make a compelling offer,” Lio muttered, mulling the proposition over. Eventually, he came over and positioned himself to lay his head in Galo’s lap. “I’ll take you up on it.”

“Good to hear,” Galo said, running his fingers through Lio’s hair. “I’ll wake you up in a bit for dinner, alright?”

“Mm-hm.” Lio closed his eyes to take in the gentle contact. Even if the work of finding one thousand and one good-hearted people in the world was exhausting, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t enjoying it with Galo’s help. Somewhere deep down, he hoped that he would find all of those people, and they would heal the thousand wounds inside him.

Meanwhile, Galo considered the day’s mission a success. Even if Lio ran out of stamina partway through, he had a feeling that the quest would do him some good. Galo was convinced that these good people existed in the world, and he felt that if Lio saw the adventure through, he would be able to heal and enjoy life in the rebuilding world.

That was what Galo wanted for Lio most of all.

**Author's Note:**

> The linchpin/inspiration for this entire fic is from Ar Tonelico's Tale of Rhaplanca. One of the sections of the story has a boy named Maoh taking a girl named Rhaplanca around the world to meet 1001 good people to balance out the 1000 sad things that Rhaplanca has seen in her life. So, Galo is Maoh, Lio is Rhaplanca, and Galo is determined to help Lio heal.


End file.
